Ideal Religious System (IRS)

The LA Times reports that the IRS is challenging the tax-exempt status of a liberal Episcopal Church because it delivered an anti-war sermon prior to last year's election, Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning.

As the paper noted, "Regas' 2004 sermon imagined how Jesus would admonish Bush and Kerry if he debated them. Regas never urged parishioners to vote for one candidate over the other, but he did say that he believes Jesus would oppose the war in Iraq, and that Jesus would be saddened by Bush's positions on the use and testing of nuclear weapons."

Then travel down memory lane to other pre-election Church activities promoted by the Bush/Cheney campaign, which sent talking points to explain how to encourage Church members to vote for the "right" party. See: The Mahablog and The Washington Note.

As Amy Sullivan of the The Washington Monthly said, "If a Democratic administration went after a conservative church and threatened its tax-exempt status over statements made during a sermon, it's safe to assume all hell would break loose."

I suppose that there is a reasonable explanation for the difference in treatment. Such as, God hates those who hate war, and the IRS is his disciple.